Wanaka

Greetings from me as a 29 year old! I love birthdays! The guys surprised me by buying me a bunch of sweets (everything I pointed out while hungry grocery shopping) and had candles and a card. We used the kitchen at a hostel to cook dinner that night and found out another girl from Japan was having a birthday too so had a spontaneous mini celebration. We've been camping in our minivan, lays down into a bed in the back. Not very big though, and we have sleeping bags for one of us to sleep outside (its cold) so three of us sleep in the van. I sleep in the middle and lay with my feet by the boys heads so as to fit better laying the opposite way. We bot groceries and eat PBJ for lunch and cook dinner on our little camp stove. We've had quesidillas, hot dogs and pasta.

New Zealand is surpassing anything we expected. Its like a backpackers paradise filled with cows and sheep, glaciers and mountains, lakes and cute little towns, and trails everywhere. Just off the highway you can walk 2 minutes or 10 days, there are really good signs and plenty to see. We've seen glow worms, glaciers, penguins, caves, a salmon farm, waterfalls, beaches, seals, clear blue lakes and more. Weather has been great the past two days, sunny yet ALaska temps. The boys don't really come up with a plan. We just wake up and start driving and read our Lonely Planet travel guide. Mostly we pull off to look at everything (patience Karie) and "check it out" anytime there's a pull out. Today we did a 3 hour hike to a cool glacier. Tomorrow..who knows...where we camp tonight...who knows....I try very hard not to ask questions. As much as the whole place seems set up for backpackers (tons of backpacker hostels/lodges and campervans everywhere), we don't feel overrun with people whenever we go places. Its really strange actually. Wanaka is a town of 3,500 on a beautiful lake in the mountains. Its really peaceful, most towns are pretty quiet. Just a lot of sheep and scenery and some cows.

Hopefully I'll have gone skydiving within the next couple of days.